Let’s give all parents-to-be a start box
Conservatives believe in and value the institution of the family. As David Cameron put it at the 2009 Conservative Party Conference, families are the most important to him, and most important for the...
View ArticleHow Ed Miliband could build on his Conservative idea
The more I read about this welfare cap, the crosser I get. Not because it will take money away from anyone – far from it, frankly; more because it will still give people who don’t work over three times...
View ArticleEverything must change
A much mocked quote last year, spoken by Steve Hilton according to Andrew Rawnsley, was that “[e]verything must have changed by 2015. Everything”. The important and simple point that Steve Hilton was...
View ArticleInequality or moral breakdown?
Effectively, the analysis of the riot is starting to fall into these two camps. It is either because they don’t have enough HD TVs, or too many. It is either because they had too much money from...
View ArticleHard cases make bad law – how not to legislate after the London riots
Last week a YouGov poll for the Sun revealed that one in three people polled believed the police should use live ammunition against rioters. This was one of the many extraordinary pieces of...
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“Ignore the rule-book”? No – because those rules are the ones we should all...
This morning’s Telegraph splash says that “Magistrates have been told they can ignore sentencing guidelines and hand down more draconian penalties to rioters and looters”. While I completely understand...
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The Victorians, the Liberals and the welfare state
“Protection of the vicious poor involves aggression on the virtuous poor” The words quoted above are those of Herbert Spencer, a prominent Victorian sociologist. If I had read them last week I would...
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Inequality does matter. But it can’t be fixed overnight – and we all have a...
Why is this OK? It's not... On my bus on the way to work this morning, these two women got on separately, sat down, and immediately put their feet on the seats. They were both pretty well-off; one was...
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David Blunkett’s favourite word is ‘reciprocity’
What does Right & Left mean?”, I was asked at the weekend. My bumbling explanation journeyed from the French Revolution towards ownership, state intervention, communism, Hayek, and finally ended up...
View ArticleIs the government doing enough?
There’s an interesting article on politicalbetting.com this morning, asking whether the government is trying to do too much in one term. I’ve pondered this before, but from a different angle – asking...
View ArticleForget about the vocal minority: this is what popular Conservatism looks like
I live in West London, I have a good job in a big firm, doing work I like, and I’m lucky enough to have been well-educated. My life has been far easier than most. I’m the kind of person that Nigel...
View ArticleI will survive! But how will I live?
If you were trying to establish the minimum housing space that families require in Britain today, how useful do you think it would be to see how many people you could fit into a red telephone box? This...
View ArticleWhat the Queen’s Speech means for modernisers
The next two years are going to be tough for modernisers. The Queen’s Speech was another clear sign that many of the palpable achievements that stem from detoxification are likely to be hushed up...
View ArticleDon’t hate them – or me
Caitlin Moran has written a fantastically powerful piece in The Times today (which builds on her piece on Saturday). I really do recommend reading both of them – worth the Times‘ subscription cost...
View ArticleConservatism should be compassionate
During David Cameron’s second outing at PMQs as Conservative leader, way back in December 2005, Tony Blair caricatured compassionate conservatism by quipping that “the only difference between...
View ArticleWhy trusting people means more than just a referendum
Over the weekend, I kept hearing Conservatives saying, Labour will do anything for the working class except trust them in a referendum (or similar), I suspect largely based on Fraser Nelson’s very good...
View ArticleFull-spectrum Conservatism
I must confess to finding the whole EU debate rather esoteric and often a bit pointless. By far the most important piece of information we’ve had today – electoral or otherwise – is the encouraging...
View Article5 things the Tories need to do to win the moral high ground on welfare
Fraser Nelson’s column this morning looked at the Tories’ moral mission in Government, arguing Cameron should emphasise reforms that save lives, not just money. It’s a great article, but I think we...
View ArticleHow’s the Big Society doing?
Two and a half years on from that ‘Invitation to Join the Government of Britain’, where is the Big Society? The centrepiece of the Conservatives 2010 Manifesto was the Big Society. Except it wasn’t. It...
View ArticleShaping the ground on which elections are fought
In a period of economic turbulence it is very easy for financial matters to crowd out other areas of policy. For the Conservatives in government that would be fatal as it is a long established...
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